Would You Feed Bovine-Made Breast Milk to Your Baby?
By Jacqueline Tourville
Breastfeeding breakthrough or just a case of some really weird news from the world of science? Whichever one it is, it is safe to say that the great debate of breast vs. bottle has a strange new twist, thanks to a team of Chinese scientists who claim to have created a genetically modified herd of dairy cows capable of producing “human-like” breast milk. According to the UK’s Sky News, testing has revealed that the milk produced by the 300 genetically altered cows is almost identical in composition and flavor to breast milk and even comes with the same immune-boosting and antibacterial qualities.
To duplicate human milk, scientists bred the cows by inserting human genetic information into cow embryos which were then implanted into surrogate cows. Scientists from China’s Agricultural University in Beijing say that the animals’ mammary glands now produce milk with large quantities of lysozyme, a protein that is abundant in human milk, but not so in cow’s milk. The bovine “breast milk” is still undergoing safety tests, but if all goes well, scientists say the milk could someday hit store shelves around the world as an alternative to baby formula and as a more nutritious dairy drink for adults.
Is it safe?
Whether genetically modified (GMO) foods should be allowed in the US is a contentious issue right now, but researchers from the University of California at Davis think that there could be more benefits than drawbacks to drinking genetically engineered breast milk, especially when it comes to malnourished babies and infants suffering from severe diarrhea.
Instead of using cows, UC Davis scientists inserted the human gene for lysozyme into a herd of goats that then went on to produce milk with almost as much lysozyme as human milk, according to an MSNBC report. High concentrations of lysozyme are what set human breast milk apart from other mammals’ milk (human milk has 1,600 times more lysozyme than cow and goat milk) and the protein “plays a big role in putting a good set of bacteria in the intestine,” said Elizabeth Maga, a UC Davis animal scientist.
Whether from goats or cows, Maga hopes the milk could help ease malnourishment caused by diarrhea, which is a leading cause of infant sickness in some developing countries. Moms who can’t breastfeed could also seek out the breast milk as an alternative to formula. Scientists say that GMO breast milk wouldn’t be just for babies; conceivably any malnourished person, or person lacking in gut bacteria, could benefit from drinking it.
“There are a lot of studies that have shown that breastfed human babies are much healthier than ones that get formula, and one of the reasons seems to be that they have much better gut bacteria, which are better at protecting against diarrhea,” Maga said (via MSNBC).
Still, don’t expect to see the milk for sale anytime soon. “For the ‘human-like milk,’ 10 years or maybe more time will be required to finally pour this enhanced milk into the consumer’s cup,” said study researcher Ning Li, Director of the State Key Laboratories for AgroBiotechnology at China’s Agricultural University, in an interview with the UK’s Telegraph newspaper.
